LADY BEARCATS CLINCH SHARE OF DISTRICT TITLE

In addition to continuing to remain unbeaten and completing a stretch of five games in eight days, the Booneville Lady Bearcats clinched no less than a share of the 3A-4 title along with a regional berth Tuesday night with a 58-40 win in Danville.

The loss was the third for Danville and with only three games remaining, the Lady Bearcats can be nothing but the top seed in the 3A-4 tournament to be held in Cedarville the week of February 14.

A win in any of the three final games by the 21-0 Lady Bearcats, clinches an outright league crown.

Tuesday's win came through a big second half as it was a 27-22 game at the intermission.

Danville jumped in front 5-0 and would lead 7-2 just 2:12 into the game.

By the end of the quarter, however, the Lady Bearcats had pulled out to a 14-7 after successive baskets by Leigh Swint.

They had also began to accumulate foul calls, six of them by that point, with three of them sending Joeligh Tate (shown) to the bench.

She would have company, pressing Lexi Franklin, Carah Miller, and Linley Garrett into service with the latter scoring on an assist from Franklin – she had four in the game – to make it 22-13 with 3:52 left in the half.

But, in the bonus the entire second quarter, Danville was able to chip away with nine free throws in the second quarter, getting as close as 22-20 with 1:53 left in the half.

A couple of baskets by Franklin extended the lead, which could have been bigger were it not for 1-for-8 free throw shooting -- though six of the free throws came in the final 1:05 of the half.

Danville scored first in the second half to get within 27-24 but Tate hit a 3 to start a 9-0 run that included a basket by Hayley Roberts and two by Swint.

Danville got it back to nine by the end of the quarter but Swint, who had 14 at that point, pushed it back to double digits just 13 seconds into the final quarter and Danville would get no closer an 11 the rest of the way.

Swint scored eight more in the final quarter giving her 24 in the game.

Swint also had one of her four assists in the quarter on a basket by Heaven Sanchez, who had torched the Lady Little Johns for 24 in the first meeting between the schools. Swint completed her night with four steals and six rebounds.

Franklin also completed her third double digit scoring game of the season with a fourth quarter basket that gave her 10 points.

There were seven Lady Bearcats in the scoring column Tuesday night. On Monday there were 11 contributing to a 45-23 win in Waldron.

That game was rescheduled due to a January 11 postponement.

The Lady Bearcats scored the first nine points of the game in just 3:35 but would not score again for more than six minutes.

Waldron got within 9-7 before Sanchez scored with 6:11 left in the first half.

A lengthy delay for an injured Lady Bulldog sent both teams to the bench with 5:26 left in the half and out of the break, the Lady Bearcats opened a 25-7 lead by halftime.

A couple of Miller free throws made it a 20-point lead and she added another point on a technical foul free throw.

The lead would be as many as 24 before the third quarter ended and the Lady Bearcats coasted from there.

The final quarter included a basket by June Gandarias, four points from Brooke Turner and the first bucket of the season by J.J. Keatts.

Sanchez led the way with 10 points with Karmen Kent adding seven.